Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

The overall precision of the statistics is assessed as lower than most statistics from Statistics Denmark, including most environmental and macroeconomic statistics. However, it is assessed that it is currently not possible to calculate Denmark's consumption-based climate footprint with significantly higher precision. This is because the statistics cover greenhouse gas emissions in global supply chains, and at present there is only data on this, where the precision is lower than Statistics Denmark's typical level. In addition, the attribution of greenhouse gas emissions in the global economy to types of Danish final use also requires more modeling than is typical for Statistics Denmark's statistics.

The uncertainty could be made more transparent by carrying out sensitivity analyzes of how the results of the statistics depend on the different parts of the data base and the modelling. These analyzes have not yet been prepared specifically for Statistics Denmark's climate footprint model. The article Tukker et al, 2020 reviews more general sensitivity analyzes of multiregional IO climate footprint models, including the sensitivity to using EXIOBASE versus others environmental economic, multi-regional IO databases.

Sampling error

Not relevant for these statistics.

Non-sampling error

The uncertainty in the climate footprint stems from the uncertainty in the sources and in the model's assumptions.

The sources for the climate footprint are IO tables and the emissions accounts from Statistics Denmark and multi-regional, environmental economic IO tables from EXIOBASE. As described in the documentation for the IO tables and the emissions account, these sources have considerable uncertainty. EXIOBASE is based on a compilation of IO tables and emission modeling for EXIOBASE's 44 countries and 5 rest-of-the-world regions. Thus, EXIOBASE will accommodate both uncertainty from the national sources, as well as from the method used to balance these national sources against each other. All in all, the sources of the climate footprint therefore contain a high degree of uncertainty. For the past few years, there is further uncertainty linked to the fact that data in EXIOBASE has been created by projections, rather than actual updates of the source base.

The model behind the climate footprint is a multi-regional, environmental economic IO table (MRIO). The model's calculations are thus based on industry and country-divided averages for inputs to industries' production and for greenhouse gas emissions per production (read more in Miller and Blair, 2022.The more precisely these averages describe the conditions in the actual supply chains for Danish final use, the more truthful the results of the calculations be.

Quality management

Statistics Denmark follows the recommendations on organisation and management of quality given in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and the implementation guidelines given in the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF). A Working Group on Quality and a central quality assurance function have been established to continuously carry through control of products and processes.

Quality assurance

Statistics Denmark follows the principles in the Code of Practice for European Statistics (CoP) and uses the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (QAF) for the implementation of the principles. This involves continuous decentralized and central control of products and processes based on documentation following international standards. The central quality assurance function reports to the Working Group on Quality. Reports include suggestions for improvement that are assessed, decided and subsequently implemented.

Quality assessment

The climate footprint is relevant for everyone who is interested in connections between Danish consumption and investment and global emissions of greenhouse gases, and the statistics contribute to the ongoing debate about Denmark's climate goals. The figures are consistent with other statistics on greenhouse gas emissions from Statistics Denmark, while it is more difficult to judge the consistency in relation to other countries' emissions of greenhouse gases, which are influenced by Danish final use. The statistics are partly comparable to similar statistics from other countries, but this is an experimental statistic, and other countries are also experimenting with methods and data bases. There is a great deal of work underway internationally with a view to harmonizing the data basis for calculations of this type, which over time will lead to better comparability and coherence in calculations of this type for different countries.

It is important to keep in mind that these are partly model calculations which are based on a number of assumptions. The statistics are therefore considered to be more uncertain than most statistics from Statistics Denmark. With the methods and data currently available, it is estimated that it will be difficult to raise the quality further. The nature and size of the uncertainty could be made more transparent to users by preparing sensitivity analyses.

In relation to relevance and precision, the statistics will be improved by using an industry classification that subdivides the industries in the national accounts' industry classification that contain products with very different emission intensities. An example is dividing the agricultural industry into sub-sectors, such as plant production, dairy cattle, beef cattle and pig farming. It is planned that the next publication of the climate footprint will be calculated and published with the industry classification, where it is possible to reflect the differences in the industries' emissions of greenhouse gases to a greater extent.

Data revision - policy

Statistics Denmark revises published figures in accordance with the Revision Policy for Statistics Denmark. The common procedures and principles of the Revision Policy are for some statistics supplemented by a specific revision practice.

Data revision practice

The calculation of the climate footprint is experimental statistics and revisions are therefore to be expected, not only on the basis of revised source data but also as a result of methodological and model development. With each publication, the climate footprint is recalculated for all years back to 1990, so that the statistics are comparable over time.